Railroad bed cleaning equipment



Feb. 28, 1967 D. G. DRESSLER 3,305,952

RAILROAD BED CLEANING EQUIPMENT Filed April 28, 1964 INVENTOR. DONALD 6. DRESSLER I2 I Attorney United States Patent Ofilice 3,385,952 Patented Feb. 28, 1967 3,305,952 RAILRGAD BED CLEANING EQUIPMENT Donald G. Dressler, Kansas tCity, Mm, assignor to United States Steel Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 28, 1964, Ser. No. 363,089 1 Claim. (Cl. 37-164) This invention relates to equipment for removing refuse and the like from the roadbed between railroad rails and along the adjacent right-of-way.

More particularly it pertains to a snout-like device removably attached to a scoop of a mobile earth loader, which snout is adapted to span the rails, extending somewhat outside them, and present a scraping edge well below the level of the rail head, to permit removal of debris down to the level of the railroad ties.

In the operation of railway systems for transporting raw materials in and around industrial plants, the problem of maintaining the track beds clean and free of fallen material and debris is a problem that is ever present and one that detrimentally alfects the efiicient functioning of the system. The task of keeping the trackway clean is particularly arduous and time consuming where the raw material being hauled is in fine granular or powder form. Such materials tend to leak out of the cars in transit and this leaking material together with the material normally spilled during transfer causes the track bed to be covered with a considerable accumulation of material in a short time.

Prior to this invention it was common practice to accomplish track cleaning operations by manual labor which not only made the operation time consuming and inefiicient but frequently hazardous as well. Also, in the past, special scrapers or plows were attached to one end of a railroad car or tractor, all of which were difficult to mount and remove from the vehicle.

The invention is further described in conjunction with the drawing, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of the device of the invention incorporated in a conventional mobile earth loader;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the snout of the invention attached to a conventional scoop;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary side view of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a plan elevation of the FIGURE 2 assembly; and

FIGURE 5 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line V-V of FIGURE 4.

Referring more particularly to FIGURE 1, conventional mobile earth loader 1, with bucket-type scoop 2 has attached to the scoop track scraper snout 3. Scoop 2 is preferably sufficiently broad to span the distance between the tracks, and extend therebeyond a sufficient distance to encompass the swath to be cleaned.

The remaining figures provide additional detail on the snout and its integration with the scoop of the mobile earth loader. Snout 3 has two upright side plates 4, each mounted, by welding or equivalent means, between two vertical mounting plates 5. The snout has base plate 6 of sufiicient span to cover the swath to be cleaned. Snout 3 is mounted on lower lip 7 of scoop 2 by inserting lip 7 into generally U-shaped transverse cavity 8 formed by base plate 6 and flange plate 9, while at the same time side plates 10 of scoop 2 are secured between plates 5 of snout 3 by means of pins 11.

In operative position, the base plate 6 is disposed with its longitudinal axis extending transversely of the trackway and its leading edge 12 extending below the head of rails 13. For this reason, recesses 14 are provided in the leading edge of plate 6, extending inwardly from the edge, to accommodate the rails as shown in FIGURE 3. In order to provide greater rigidity, cover plates 15 with triangularly shaped sides are welded to plate 6 over recesses 14.

By adapting the track cleaning snout to a conventional mobile earth loader, having universal scoop control, scrap material can be removed from the track bed and deposited anywhere along the track or remotely into trucks to be hauled away.

While one embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it will be apparent that other adaptations and modifications may be made without departing from v the scope of the invention.

I claim:

A railroad bed scraping snout removably attached to a scoop of a mobile earth loader and the like, said snout comprising (a) a transverse base plate adapted to span the rails and adjacent right-of-way;

(b) a leading edge on said base plate adapted to scrape the bed;

(c) recesses in said base plate extending inwardly from said leading edge, said recesses being of sufficient breadth to accommodate rails and of sufficient depth to permit said leading edge to be positioned below the level of the rail head;

(d) cover plates with triangularly shaped sides for said recesses;

(e) vertical side plates extending upwardly from each of the side edges of said base plate;

(f) mounting plates permanently attached to each side of each of said side plates providing separations between said mounting plates to accommodate portions of the side plates of said scoop; and

(g) a transverse flange plate extending below and rearwardly from said base plate to form a U-shaped transverse cavity to accommodate the lower lip of said scoop.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 305,911 9/1884 Ferguson 37-28 866,919 9/1907 Cross 37104 XR 1,681,089 8/1928 Bottomley et a1. 37-28 XR 2,268,570 1/ 1942 Osgood. 2,748,720 6/1956 Kling 37104 XR ABRAHAM G. STONE, Primary Examiner. R. L. HOLLISTER, Assistant Examiner. 

